Traditionally some of the best young colts in Europe have been picked for the Danish stallion licensing in Herning and with several German champion colts in the collection it seems that this year will be no exception.
Nevertheless, the exceptional high quality of the Danish bred youngsters this year suggests that there will be hard competition to reach the premium ring.
This year’s collection of young colts has an unusual large share of Danish bred stallion prospects of which several were finalist at the national foal championship and were sold through Danish Warmblood’s Elite Foal Auction 2008. Both champion colt foals from 2008 are selected for the 32nd stallion licensing in Herning which is Danish Warmblood’s 50th stallion licensing.
The best colt collection in 50 years
In his usual style of professional competency and without any kind of sentimentality the spokesman of the licensing committee, Mr. Poul Graugaard, has stated that the colt collection is of remarkably high quality this year.
– "It is the best collection of colts in the 50 years this studbook has existed," he concluded after the last pre-inspection in January.
More than 77% of the colt collection is Danish bred. 15 colts are imported and of these 12 are born in Germany and 3 in Holland. It seems that the Danish bred colts are not only dominant in numbers; they are also of a significantly higher quality than in previous years.
The fact that there are fewer imported stallions this year does not reflect that they are of lesser quality, as several of them are German licensing champions. The majority of the Danish bred colts is rather an indication of the stallion keepers having invested in Danish Warmblood colt foals of international standard.
Few have forgotten the outstanding collection of elite action foals in 2008. Many of the stallion prospects in the Herning collection are either from the elite auction or from the national foal championship final in 2008.
A closer look at the colt collection
The collection of 66 young stallions consists of 62 % of dressage bloodlines and 38 % of jumping bloodlines. Five of the colts have a thoroughbred sire or dam, and are considered as “refined”.
14 of the 25 jumping stallions are by the Holstein C-lines descending from Cor de la Bryère or Capitol I. All 14 C-stallions are by a different sire. One of them is a very attractive son of Contendro I and out of the fabulous thoroughbred mare It’s Showtime xx. The most influential sire among the jumping stallions is the KWPN stallion Heartbeat with five sons among the young stallion prospects. Furthermore, there are stallion prospects by such prominent jumping stallions as Lordanos, Ludwigs As and Stakkato Gold.
20 out of the 41 dressage stallions carry the Donnerhall blood. One of the valuable players in the Danish breeding of dressage horses, Blue Hors Don Schufro, is the sire of five stallion prospects, paternal grand sire of one and great grand sire of two. Don Schufro has strongly contributed to bringing Danish Warmblood into focus at the young horse championships in Verden in recent years, and his offspring are always an asset to any stallion licensing or auction.
The first crop by Blue Hors Zack will be represented in Herning by nothing less than seven sons. Also young sires like Prinz K3, Skovens Rafael, Bøgegårdens Laurino and Uno Don Diego have offspring in this year’s collection of colts.
Relatively new blood in Denmark can be found through the WBFSH leading dressage progenitor, Jazz, and his son Jazz Time. The living legend Sandro Hit is represented by three sons, is the dam sire of one and paternal grand sire of two through his sons Sunny-Boy and Sunset Hit.
Two of the dressage colts descend from what is considered one of the strongest dam lines in Denmark, the family of the imported Holsteiner mare Pari. One of them is Freezbee-Pari who represents several generations of Danish breeding on both the sire and the dam side. His bloodlines are predominantly Holsteiner and with more than 50 % thoroughbred.
New bloodlines do not appear from out of the blue and not necessarily from abroad. Therefore, it might be worth keeping an eye on some of the Danish bred colts at the stallion show in Herning this year.
Related Links
International Stars Coming to the 2011 Danish Warmblood Stallion Licensing in Herning
Brink Invited as Guest Judge Rider for 2011 Danish Young Horse Championships